Closings

Severe Weather

Lawyers: Phylicia Barnes was seen after disappearance

Lawyers for the man accused of killing a North Carolina teenager in Maryland said the girl was seen alive in Cecil County in the days after she was reported missing.

Defense attorneys for Michael Johnson, the man charged in Phylicia Barnes' death, said in a motion that they plan to call an alibi witness. The attorneys told The Baltimore Sun that the witness saw Barnes alive.

Barnes, 16, was an honor student from Monroe, N.C., who was reported missing in late 2010 while visiting her half-sister, Deena, in Baltimore.

Prosecutors said Johnson, who is the ex-boyfriend of Deena Barnes, killed the teen in her half-sister's apartment and used a 35-gallon tub to move the body.

Barnes' body was found months later in the Susquehanna River.

Johnson has pleaded not guilty. He's scheduled for trial in January.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons -- but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and lea...